Disney and Skydance are considering bids for Ligue 1's domestic television rights — the first time either American giant has chased French football — as the league tries to haul itself back from a collapse in broadcast revenue.
The LFP launched its tender last week for the domestic audiovisual rights from 2027 to 2032, with bids due by December 3 and the outcome expected on December 4. As the Sports Business Journal reports, citing Bloomberg, broadcast revenue that once stood at around €1 billion ($1.1 billion) a year has fallen to roughly €180 million (about $200 million) since the league launched its own streaming service.
Under the tender, bidders can either acquire the full broadcast rights or secure exclusive distribution of Ligue 1+, the league-owned channel. The LFP has set a minimum reserve price for the auction but has not revealed the amount.
A league selling one big package
This time, everything is on the table at once. According to Reuters, the LFP is offering a single package covering all nine matches from each Ligue 1 round, taking advantage of legislation that allows the league to market the rights as one lot — a break from the fragmented auctions of the past.
Ligue 1+ was launched in 2025 after the league's deal with DAZN ended, and it carries every match this season. The platform reported 1.1 million subscribers at the end of its first season, and the LFP insists it is a strength, not a weakness. "We have this comfort and this luxury because we have Ligue 1+, there's no emergency," LFP media chief executive Olivier Bramly said, adding that the reserve price "needs to be significantly above Ligue 1+'s projected trajectory. It's ambitious, but not unrealistic."
LFP president Vincent Labrune was equally bullish. "If we decided to test the market, it's because we believe the environment is more favourable than in 2023," he said. "American platforms are reaching a bit more maturity in their thinking about sports content than they were two or three years ago."
Why Disney and Skydance want in
Disney has been quietly building a French sports portfolio through Disney+. It already shows all 380 La Liga matches in France through a partnership with DAZN and holds the UEFA Women's Champions League rights until 2029-30. Ligue 1 would give it the biggest domestic property of all.
Skydance's hand is newer but heavier. Its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has brought Eurosport, TNT Sports and HBO Max into its stable, yet its football presence in France remains limited compared with its UK operation. A spokesman said it was still early in the process but that the company routinely considered available opportunities. Canal+ and beIN Sports are also expected to consider offers.
On the pitch, the product they would be buying is a league still dominated by Paris Saint-Germain, whose 1-0 win over Troyes made it 11 straight victories, while Lille have narrowed the gap at the top with the league's meanest defence. The football, in other words, is not the problem. The money has been.
So what happens next?
Everything now turns on December 3. Bidders must submit a financial proposal, a qualitative proposal and a financial guarantee, and the winning bid must clear that confidential reserve price. If the auction fails, the LFP says it will simply keep developing Ligue 1+ — but a failed tender, after bringing the process forward two years early because the platforms told them the timing was right, would be a public embarrassment and another squeeze on club budgets.
For clubs outside Paris, this is not an abstract media story. Broadcast income is the difference between keeping a squad together and selling its best player every summer, and the fall from €1 billion to €180 million is written into every transfer Ligue 1 clubs have not made since.
Beyond the Final Whistle: Ligue 1 is not short of talent — it is short of people willing to pay for it. Disney and Skydance circling at the bottom of the market tells you two things at once: French football has been badly run commercially for years, and its rights are now cheap enough for American platforms to treat as a bargain. If either bids seriously, December 4 could be the day Ligue 1's long TV nightmare finally starts to end.
Would a Disney or Skydance deal save Ligue 1 — or does French football need to fix its product first? Have your say in the comments.
